Thursday, October 12, 2006

Food and languageHere's a question for all you foodies and folklorists (I'm looking at you Martin).

Does anyone have a name for that series of meals wherein meal A provides the ingredients for meal B and, possibly, so on throughout the week? The Platonic ideal lasts al week. The simplest example is the big holiday meal which leads to innumerable turkey or ham sandwiches for the next week.

Actually, I have something more complicated in mind. In our house, when I roast a chicken, I save the pan, with all the drippings it produces, and the carcass, with all the roast seasonings, and boil it all to start soup for the next week. Roast A leads to soup B. Shopping for a roast chicken meal includes soup ingredients.

Does anyone have a name for that sequence of inevitably liked meals, and does anyone have a favorite example that they would like to share with the class?